The New Year beckons now Christmas is done, the official and hopefully precious, two days anyway.
Maybe a few days of meetups with much loved friends and family are now strewn across the diary (or are booked in your memory as the diary has been left unopened!)
However, work is still rumbling in the back of your mind, jostling against other commitments. New Years day seems to be galloping towards you at speed and time is rapidly disintegrating. The pressure to make New Year resolutions is increasing and the thought of one more goal is pushing you to overwhelm.
How about sitting with your laptop, or journal and quickly doing a list?
- Make a list of priorities; include family, business, friends.
- Areas of vulnerability; thoughts that bring up fear and anxiety
- Hopes and dreams; things you would like to do, for fun or for learning.
Above all it is important that the list includes some light as well as shade, as this will provide much needed balance.
Try these for size:
- I haven’t spent enough time with my children how can I do better next year?
- My parents are needing more of my time, how can I split myself into many parts?
- My business will need more input how can I achieve this?
- What will stop it all going pear-shaped?
- I really want to paint, is this achievable?
- Dancing makes me feel good, how can I make time?
- I need to lose some weight but am stuck.
- My wife says I work too hard and am too stressed, what can I do?
- Fear feels debilitating how can I face it?
Now to prioritise.
I remember a rather obvious ‘light bulb’ moment that happened a couple of years ago, when dawned on me that I oversaw my own diary. What was added and what was not. How packed my days were and how long. What I chose to take responsibility for and what I did not.
To be honest it is still a struggle on some days as I love to find answers. When they are not readily available, I am still learning to roll with it. Sometimes there are just no answers.
These are some of the most common issues that my clients bring to session; the underlying question being, how can I have balance and prevent overwhelm?
A quick self-coaching session:
Take your hastily written list and apply the following questions:
- What is one thing you can do in each area?
- How will you achieve it?
- When will you do it?
- Who will you tell? (chose someone to be accountable to in order to stay focused)
- Put them in your diary, allowing space and time.
Put aside your list implementing those things and enjoy the last days of 2018.